After meeting Mbeki, Former Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe said, “Our discussions with former President Thabo Mbeki were around how to move this country forward and we realise that we can only move the country forward by uniting as Zimbabweans and speaking with one voice.
“We want everyone to have a better life in this country and this can only come when people come together and start talking to one another. These are the issues we discussed with President Mbeki and we agreed that as political players in this country, let us come together, let us speak with one voice, let us move our country forward because the people of Zimbabwe matter (more) than any other person.”
Zimbabwe’s political players did come together, united and spoke with one voice during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. Mai Khupe was deputy Prime Minister for Pete’s sake. Did that help move the country forward? Hell no!
The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to stop Zanu PF rigging elections and stop a repeat of the blatant cheating of March 2008 and the wanton violence during the run off that followed. No even one reform was implemented.
“MDC leaders were busy enjoying themselves during the GNU, they forgot why they were there!” remarked one SADC diplomat is sheer exasperation at MDC’s failure to get even one reform implemented.
It is remarkable that the same individuals from the last GNU are the ones clamouring for the formation of the new one. They know no meaningful reforms will ever be implement, given Zanu PF will keep its 2/3 majority in parliament. All these people want is a chance to get back on the gravy train so they can once again sing “The good times are here again!”
“The people of Zimbabwe matter (more) than any other person.” That is a blatant lie Mai Khupe and you know it. If the people mattered, then you and your MDC friends would have implemented all the democratic reforms during the 2008 GNU when you had the golden opportunity to do so. You failed to get even one reform implemented because you were all busy looking after number one - your self, the people did not matter!
You, Mrs Khupe, and your fellow opposition politicians have participated in the 2013 and then 2018 elections not only knowing fully well that Zanu PF was rigging the elections but worse still, knowing that your participation was giving some modicum of credibility to a flawed, fraudulent and illegal process.
“The worst aspect for me about the failure to agree a coalition was that both MDCs couldn’t now do the obvious – withdraw from the elections,” confessed David Coltart in his book, The Struggle Continues 50 years of tyranny in Zimbabwe.
“The electoral process was so flawed, so illegal, that the only logical step was to withdraw, which would compel SADC to hold Zanu PF to account. But such was the distrust between the MDC-T and MDC-N that neither could withdraw for fear that the other would remain in the elections, winning seats and giving the process credibility.”
Zimbabwe’s opposition politicians have gone from hunting to sleeping with the enemy whilst continuing to run with the hare, the people. The new GNU you are proposing will legitimacy Zanu PF and you, your reward for selling out again, will get a share of the spoils of power.
The power sharing arrangement you are clamouring for will not move the country one inch out of the mess we are stuck in because, just like the 2008 GNU, not meaningful democratic reforms will be implemented.
The only way Zimbabwe is ever going to get out of this economic and political mess the country find itself stuck in, has been stuck now for the last 39 years and counting, is to get the democratic reforms implemented. Since Zanu PF cannot be trusted to implement the reforms, it will not reform itself out of office, then the party must be asked to step down so the country can appoint other players who will implement the reforms.
Neither Zanu PF nor the MDC opposition leaders can take the country out of the mess, they are the ones who dragged the nation into this mess for selfish reasons and are keeping us captive for selfish reasons. If they truly cared about the people, they never tire of reminding us of that, they would have never dragged us into this mess in the first place!
Zimbabwe’s corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF thugs and their paid acolytes, the corrupt opposition sell-outs, must now all go. Enough is enough.
@ Charamba
ReplyDelete“The real problem with the young man is hoping and wishing that National Dialogue under POLAD delivers for his party what electoral contest wouldn't! The language in the tweet comes off MDC manifesto, over which the Zimbabwean people passed a verdict on July 30, 2018.
“No re-issuance of the same hoping the National Dialogue re-valorizes a discredited manifesto, will ever change the position or verdict of the Zimbabwean people. Creating and finding coming ground for National Dialogue involving winners who can and have been governing without you, includes couching your language in ways that don't trigger instant recall of the terms that put you apart during the electoral contest, that identified you apart.”
Zanu PF has no intention of implementing any reforms and it sees POLAD as a vehicle for getting all the country’s corrupt and incompetent opposition under lock and key. Zimbabwe’s economic situation is in a sorry state, there is no question about that and any one criticising the regime for its failure to revive the economy will find a very receptive audience. POLAD services the double purposes of taking out his potential critics whilst enabling him to present the economic failure as a collective effort which he should be credited for achieving!
Zimbabweans must rest these Zanu PF political machinations. The solution here is that Zanu PF must step down, the regime is illegitimate as it rigged last year’s elections. Need to implement the reforms if we are ever to break the cycle of rigged elections - bad governance - no reforms implemented rigged election - etc.
@ Susan Mbombela
ReplyDeleteIf I am the one responsible for the economic collapse and not those who have been in power for the last 39 years then I must be a very powerful man indeed!
No Zanu PF is responsible for the country's mess but the party and its apologists, you, never accept responsibility for its failures and so blames everyone and everything else for the country’s woes.
You can blame me for Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, the hyperinflation, everything that will not change the reality that is Zanu PF that is responsible and, more significantly, that will do nothing to end the meltdown.
As for me, I know that the 39 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule by Zanu PF is the root cause of the country’s problems and I will do everything in my power to get the regime to step down so we can finally implement the reforms. You, Zanu PF thugs and the whole tribe of Zanu PF apologists do not like it but I know that millions of ordinary Zimbabweans, the victims of the misrule, like it. I am fighting in the people’s corner!
Whatever influence MDC had it lost it after 2013when the party failed to implement even one democratic reform. The party's participation in last year's elections which many dismissed as a farce left MDC with even fewer friends - how could anyone be so naive and incompetent to participate in an elections without something as basic as verified voters' roll!
ReplyDeleteChamisa is boosting about having told the west to impose tough economic sanctions on Zimbabwe to impress his naive and gullible followers. Zanu PF is using this as proof that Zimbabwe's economic meltdown was caused by sanctions and MDC is responsible for inviting these on the nation.The party has always dismissed MDC leaders as puppets but is willing to change the narrative to make the puppet pull the strings, the puppeteers are the ones dancing!
By participating in flawed and illegal elections, Chamisa and company are giving credibility to any otherwise flawed process. What the west should do is impose sanction on him and his sell-out friends!
The tragedy with Zimbabwe’s totally broken and dysfunctional political system is that the electorate have no clue on what is going on, for one reason or another, those in power know this and take full advantage of it.
ReplyDeleteMai Thokozani Khupe knows that she and her MDC friends sold-out big time during the GNU the historic facts are there for all to see. She knows the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans out there have no clue what the GNU was about, how the reforms were to be implemented and, not surprisingly, have no clue MDC sold-out. Even with the benefit of hindsight and a mountain of material written on the subject many Zimbabweans still have no clue MDC sold-out.
“Let us move our country forward because the people of Zimbabwe matter (more) than any other person,” she said, confident no one would ever challenge her on the matter much less call her a liar.
It is a historic fact that Madam Thokozani Khupe and her fellow MDC leaders failed to implement even one token reform in five years because they are breathtakingly corrupt, incompetent and Judas Iscariot sell-outs. The very fact that these men and women still have supporters out there speaks volumes of just how naive and gullible the Zimbabwe electorate is!
Like it or not, there is very little hope of democracy taking root in Zimbabwe not with such a naive and gullible electorate! These voters will elect someone like Mai Khupe regardless of her track record and she would undermine democracy to better secure her position and spend the rest of her time looking after number one, as usual. The people would not even notice!
Mnangagwa's POLAD is not about finding each other, unity, speaking with one voice, moving the country forward, etc. This are all the various disguises it is being presented to the naive and gullible. POLAD is about silencing dissent and democratic accountability!
ReplyDelete